Byron Buxton Begins Rehab Assignment For Minnesota

Byron Buxton is on his quest back to the big leagues. When he returns, it’s going to be the most important stretch of his young career. While he’s been injured the Twins have stayed afloat in the American League Central division. They’re currently four games behind the Cleveland Indians behind the strong play of Eddie Rosario.

About an hour after one last workout on the field and batting practice in front of manager Paul Molitor, Buxton left to fly to Minneapolis. He will report to Class AAA Rochester on Monday and begin a rehab assignment with the Red Wings on Tuesday.

“We’ve done a little bit of tweaking,” Molitor said. “The past three to five days, that seemed to be taking fairly well. And hopefully the combination of him feeling better and having a good mind-set about where his swing is will produce some good results.”

The changes might be noticeable, Molitor said.

“Working on just making sure [he has better] balance on his lower half. He’s been collapsing a little bit too much. We’re going to try to use his posture to improve his strength as well as his [pitch] recognition.”

It’s going to be a really interesting watch when Buxton returns, and he could factor in huge for the Twins as well as various fantasy baseball teams down the stretch this season. He’s typically been a late season/second half type of player in his career, having two great stretches in parts of two seasons in the second half of 2016 and 2017.